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RickB- Human, Artist, Fool.

Ynys Mon, UK.

The blog is called ten percent because of what Kurt Vonnegut wrote when remembering Susan Sontag - She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.-

And I'm writing it because I need the therapy and I lust for world domination.

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War On Drugs Continues To Wreck Lives And Leave People In Pain

23 December, 2008 — RickB

An OAP milkman supplied cannabis to pensioners to ward off their aches and pains, a court heard today. Robert Holding, 72, delivered the drug – which he kept in an egg box – while doing his daily milk round.

Burnley Crown Court heard that he had 17 customers and built up his trade through “word of mouth”. Judge Beverley Lunt said Holding said in his police statement that the cannabis “was for elderly people who had aches and pains”.

Who or what does this prosecution and jailing serve? Not only did he harm no one, his persecution leaves others in pain, all the well paid professionals involved in this from police, to prosecutors, to Judge should be ashamed of their idiot behaviour. Not as egregious as this atrocity, but product of the same institutions that keep their drones well rewarded long after they have lost sight of the original reasons for their existence. In fact that is positively encouraged.

Philip Holden, for the defence, said Holding’s customers “were of a certain age” and he built up his clientele through “word of mouth”. Mr Holden said it was a “somewhat bizarre case”.

Holding, of Fair View Road, Burnley, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis resin, a Class C drug, between April 1 and July 18 this year. He also admitted possessing cannabis resin on July 17.

The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report. Holding was released on bail and will be sentenced at Burnley Crown Court on February 6. Judge Lunt warned him: “You must understand these are serious offences and in my judgment the likely outcome is an immediate custodial sentence.”

Oh yes, keep the streets safe from pensioner dope sellers, that’s what really terrifies people, not being beaten, knifed or raped, being offered a spliff from a septuagenarian milk man. And about that, fear of crime, prison overcrowding, doesn’t really jibe with this, a place free in prison, a long police operation to catch him, not to mention all the terrorists hiding under all our beds…hmm, still, keeps them in work.

It’s clearly a ‘funny’ case but the reality is his clients are now in greater pain and he will be in jail…unless by February these fucking -reefer madness hysteria- idiots have been sufficiently publicly shamed they will drop their mindless persecution of this man (and waste of thousands of pounds of our money, the police set up an undercover surveillance operation over several weeks, it’s like a pathetic low rent Burnley version of The Wire, except The Wire exposes the drug war, it doesn’t prosecute it). Holy shit even the Daily Fucking Mail finds it ridiculous, fucking hell Burnley!

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5 Responses to “War On Drugs Continues To Wreck Lives And Leave People In Pain”

Regarding the Cardiff Three and the three witnesses being sent down for perjury, it reminds me of the Tottenham Three (or actually any miscarriage of justice where the cops fitted people up by using intimidation and threats or wrote the ‘confession’ themselves….B’ham 6, Guildford 4, Judith Ward….and so on). One of the Cardiff Three, Yusef Abdullahi, was involved in the campaign to free Winston Sillcott.

I was outside the Court of Appeal in late 1991 when 2 of the Tottenham Three were released (Mark Braithwaite and Engin Raghip) as there was word that they would be freed. Unfortunately, Winston had to wait longer to be eventually released. And some of the B’ham 6 turned up to show solidarity.

In the case of the Tottenham Three, the cop in charged, Melvin, was prosecuted BUT the prosecution scuppered it as the state didn’t want to prosecute one of their own. So Melvin got away with fitting three men up for a crime they didn’t commit along with intimidation, psychological bullying and threats. And creative fiction when it came to the so-called ‘confessions’… (thank goodnes for ESDA testing!)

One practical thing is to show solidarity to people who have been locked up due to a miscarriage of justice is to write to people. Just knowing that there are people out there who support you reduces the isolation. I was involved in some of the miscarriage of justice campaigns such as the Guildford 4, B’ham 6, Tottenham 3 and women who have been locked up due to self-defence killing over domestic violence, Emma Humphries, Sara Thornton, Karanjit Ahwalia and Zoora Shah (I wrote to her a couple of times to show support. Thankfully Southall Black Sisters were on her case and she was eventually released in 2004).

So if you can please find out what prisons they are in and write to them. Solidarity and support means a lot.

Thanks for that and yes that’s a good idea, I did write to Leo O’Connor when he was jailed for leaking details of the Al Jazeera memo, hope that helped pass the time.
Also with the Cardiff case if the witnesses get jail how come the cops who got them to do it get nothing, oh wait there’s the reason -cops-.

The other thing about the Cardiff Three is why did the state wait so long to bring the prosecutions against these three people? The crime took place in 1988, the Cardiff Three were imprisoned in 1990 and released by the Court of Appeal in 1992. It’s 20 years since the original crime. It is utterly surreal why they have prosecuted these people.

From the BBC: “After the sentencing, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is supervising the South Wales Police investigation into the actions taken by police officers during the original investigation, said the next stage of probe could be discussed with the force and the Police Complaints Authority”.

Oh yeah, and I have so much faith in our beloved democratic fair judiciary system that justice will be done…..and then I woke up from my utopian slumber.